Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting the valuable fruit and vegetable sector in Scotland. We recognise the many benefits of the Fruit and Vegetables Aid Scheme and Producer Organisations operating in this sector.

We have no plans to change the existing scheme model for Scotland. Farmers and crofters must not lose out from Brexit, a multi-year programme funding settlement from the UK Government is needed to reflect the essential role of Scottish agriculture to sustain high quality food production while delivering towards climate and nature outcomes.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29483 on 18 September 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Public Health Scotland’s (PHS) MAT Standards Implementation Team (MIST) has a role in working with and supporting Scotland’s Alcohol and Drug Partnerships in collating information from frontline services and partners that are used for Benchmarking on all 10 MAT standards.

Awareness-raising for the MAT standards would be led through the local Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs), the services they commission and Primary Care representatives in health boards.

The Scottish Government relies on advice on prostate screening from the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC).

The UK NSC does not currently recommend population screening for prostate cancer – this was last reviewed in November 2020. As part of this review, the use of the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test to identify prostate cancers was considered.

The PSA test identifies the levels of PSA in a male’s blood, however, levels can be raised for a number of reasons and doesn’t confirm the individual has prostate cancer. As a result, while the PSA test can be one helpful tool for GPs when assessing a patient, the test is not definitive enough to detect prostate cancer which may require treatment, can falsely find people who do not have prostate cancer and can also miss some cancers. Therefore, the UK NSC determined that the test would not be a suitable test for a national expansion.

It is anticipated that the UK NSC will review their recommendation for prostate screening in 2024-25, and will take account of any new evidence as part of that process.

The cessation of funding, referred to in the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government’s letter, was extensively discussed with the sector. Since 2019/20, the Scottish Government has invested over £19 million to support student mental health and wellbeing in colleges and universities. This includes the Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Transition Fund 2023-24 for Academic Year 2023-24, to help institutions to transition to a more sustainable means of providing mental health support for students.

Our new Student Mental Health Action Plan, published on 13 September, seeks to move to a mainstreamed approach to student mental health which will help students better access services. The Government will work with NHS Boards, CoSLA, Public Health Scotland and community based providers to join up support that is already available, embedding students’ mental health needs into the wider communities in which they live and study.

The Action Plan recognises the importance of each college and university having a Student Mental Health Agreement in place. To enable this we continue to support NUS Think Positive with £130,000 in 2024-25.

The Energy Saving Trust (EST), on behalf of the Scottish Government, publishes the annual Community and Locally Owned Energy in Scotland (COLO) Report.

This reports against six specific ownership categories (Farm & Estate, Local Authority, Local Business, Community, Housing Association, and Public Sector and Charity) with ownership then broken down by technology and distribution by local authority area. This last category groups public sector and charity organisations together as they are commonly considered not for profit organisations.

The latest report states that, as of December 2023, there are 92 MW of operational capacity across 12,110 installations in the Public Sector and Charity category, across a range of technologies.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29878 on 27 September 2024. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The Small Vessels Replacement Programme (SVRP) Phase 2 will primarily focus on the Berneray–Leverburgh and Barra–Eriskay routes with a vessel on each of these routes. The third vessel’s deployment is still to be confirmed and is subject to fleet cascades following the successful deployment of the planned 7 new vessels of SVRP Phase 1.

We are currently working with the other UK administrations to refine the drafting of the Scottish-led FMPs and will undertake further discussions with stakeholders prior to formal consultation. Draft FMPs will be published at the time of the formal consultation. Timings for this will be confirmed in due course.